Text Size

And while Republicans — including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) — have recently been outspoken about the need for immigration reform, Walker said that the issue is the country needs to deal with and not just Republicans.

Walker said that in addition to not having enough visas for immigrants is that the system in general is broken.

“We just have a broken system. And to me, if somebody wants to come in and live the American dream and work hard … we should have a system that works and let’s people in,” Walker told POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin at the event.

He added: “The vast majority of people want to come here for the right reasons. They want to live the American dream.”

Walker dodged questions about whether he’s interested in running for president in 2016 but sized up both the Democratic and Republican field.

First up, former GOP Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

“I think it would have a major impact just because he’s a great performer. And I mean that in the best of sense,” Walker said. “You look at his two terms of governor of obviously a tremendously large and significant state — and he turned things around in terms of the economy… He’s got a great record of success.”

And if it wasn’t for his last name, Bush might’ve been talked up to run for president sooner.

“I think frankly in this election and in the past, if you took your finger and covered his last name and just talked about Jeb, there’d be a lot of us who would be talking about him running for president a lot sooner than now,” Walker said.

He said “there’s no doubt about it” that Bush’s last name is still a challenge for him.

Another last name that could be challenge for voters: Clinton. Walker discussed former secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 2016 chances, saying that she would be a formidable candidate — but a beatable one. He even took a jab at her husband former President Bill Clinton’s campaign song “Don’t Stop” by Fleetwood Mac.

“If you like ‘Don’t Stop Thinking about Tomorrow’ [which is what] Bill Clinton talked about with Fleetwood Mac. If you want to keep thinking about tomorrow, maybe it’s time to put somebody new in. If you want to go thinking about the past, maybe it’s something who has been around for a while.”

Earlier Walker said: “Whoever is the nominee would have to make the case in saying ‘do we want the policies of the past or do we want something fresh?’”

As for what the GOP needs to do to reach new voters, he said Republican leaders need to be “more optimistic.”

“I think we need to be more optimistic, I think it’s not enough just to hold a referendum on the opposition. You got to hold a viable alternative. It’s good to be realistic about our challenges but we’ve got to be eternally optimistic about our solutions,” he said.

Walker — who was in a contentious battle with unions last fall — said that he has no interest in pushing right to work legislation in his state.

“No [I’m not interested in pursuing it]. We essentially did it last time, we did it for public sector employees which was the biggest challenge out there,” he said.